Damn! I was FREE! I was completely FREE of daytime… and then came Hope and Wyatt. Now I’m back and bummed. I started watching the BnB again (as well as other daytime) and I haven’t been able to free myself. To be clear, I give the BnB this much credit: at least enough of the show is silly enough that there are days when I can fast forward a good deal of it and watch the entire show in under 1o minutes! I also thank DAYS for being largely unwatchable!

The Good

Wyatt and Hope (shhhhh… no responses, please. I love them and refuse to hear a negative word about them). When Wyatt isn’t begging, but simply connecting with Hope? Good stuff! Is there no place in Paris for Liam? Really?

Quinn. If the writers turn her into the new Sheila/Stephanie, they’ve missed the point and have thrown away one of the best characters to come around in a long time. Quinn is a self-made woman. She is fearless, and she doesn’t cower when the men speak – I give Rena Sofer credit for making Quinn a stronger woman than the writers intended to write. Excuse me, but what the HELL, writers? We need strong women in daytime. Stop equating strong (if you’re female) with bat crap out of your mind. I would rather find out that Quinn’s secret is that she has a document pennyBill wrote, on a napkin, when they were young, promising her half his wealth when he finally made it on his own. To be sure, it was something he wrote as a joke, or to seduce her into believing he saw her as a life partner. Maybe he thought he’d collected it when he knocked her up and then told her to abort his kid. Sorry if that seems indelicate on my part, it’s indelicate on the part of the character and the writers treat it as a mere past act rather than an act connected to his current character flaws.

It would be too late for her to grab Spencer Publications, but she would surely have claim to much of his current bank account. If she had his half of his current holdings/income (including shares in FC) and her current success, she would be a force to be reckoned with – but no… she’s crazy, and overly involved in the love life of her adult son.

Too bad.

Katie and Ridge. Thorsten Kaye is one of the greatest miscasts in daytime history (gorgeous accent, it’s just out of place for a man born and raised in So. Cal.). While I am repulsed at the idea of sister swapping with recent lovers, there is an undeniable chemistry between HThom’s Katie and TK’s NuRidge. It’s a more powerful chemistry than should be. It appears, to me at least, that the writers are investing in making the celebrated Heather Thom the show’s new leading lady. Katie’s dialogue is so crisp and heroic that I feel that I’ve been temporarily transported to a different show. She’s strong, she’s smart, and she sees through both Bill and her sister. Katie’s words speak to women who are tired of seeing men treat women like garbage and then swagger their way through life. Her words are the words of women who feel empowered and whose emotional lives aren’t centered around being a fantasy for a man with small dreams.

Right now, despite often enjoying Wyatt and Hope, only Katie gives me hope that the show’s writers may one day learn to write for different kinds of women and characters. My only fear is that once they’ve allowed her to be strong, they’ll take her the Quinn route.

If Katie and Ridge are to be together, it can’t be about Bill, Brooke, or past betrayals that will drive Katie insane. It has to be about two those two people.

The Bad

Brooke. Yes, it breaks my heart, but my once beloved Brooke leads “the bad”. I must have been watching one day while cleaning and as I was cleaning, I must have hit my head and lost consciousness. Did Brooke chide Katie for having pride and not taking Bill off her hands (he’s in the way of her achieving her dreams of a happy ending with NuRidge, dontcha’ know)? Did she tell Katie to accept Bill back in her life and let him make her happy? You mean, as happy as she was when he impregnated her sister behind her back? (see: repeated character flaws of Bill Spencer Jr!) As happy as he made her the last time she put her pride aside and let him into her life? When she did that he bedded her and the next morning ran back to Brooke with paperwork stealing everything Katie cared for. That’s what Brooke wants for her sister, to have to wake up every morning wondering if that was the morning Bill was back in her sister’s bed?

It’s time for the writers to stop ignoring the deep, unfilled, void left with Susan Flannery’s retirement. To do so is a sign that their vision for the future is short-sighted. Brooke doesn’t have to be angry, crazy, criminally violent and just plain evil, but she can be a healing force in her family rather than the person who continues to tear it apart. While I would love for KKL’s Brooke to fill void, it doesn’t look like that will be the case. If HTom’s Katie is set free of Brooke and Bill, it would seem to me that she’s it, she’s the new martriarch/leading lady. She will be the new heart of the Logan family – she will be the person who brings them all together.

Storm gave his heart to save Katie. Brooke couldn’t give up a night in the arms of a walking outdated stereotype. The writers don’t seem to be interested in Brooke beyond the ability to use her to write destructive sexual entanglements. Three decades and this is all they have to offer the show’s fans? Shame, shame BnB writers!

The Ugly

I don’t find men who think a woman should be used in bed to be particularly hero worthy. If Bill truly loved Brooke, you would think he that he was grateful that Ridge wasn’t rushing into bed with Brooke. WHY would he taunt Ridge about NOT having sex with Brooke? Does he want to go to Brooke’s house one day and see a rumpled bed? Brooke is just for sexing under any circumstances? Brooke has been telling anyone who will listen that Ridge is her happy ending in life, what does that make Bill?

Bill seems to be incapable of real emotion. The writers are too stuck on some 70s version of a tough guy – it’s just old, silly, contrived and the opposite of tough – as far as I’m concerned. I’ll admit it, I get the giggles when Bill is on screen. Is he supposed to be funny? His scenes seem to be consistently about making empty threats to anyone who is too dumb to listen. Bill is a pair of pork chop sideburns away from completing the cosmic joke the writers have turned him into. PLEASE, PLEASE let Bill start twirling his mustache every time he makes a threat. That would make his scenes even funnier.

The last Ridge-Bill interaction taught me one thing. Ridge’s connection is about emotions and sex with Brooke is based on their emotional connection. Bill’s is about his floppy Bill and any open and available opportunity. When I’m not laughing at Bill, I’m actually feeling a little queasy.

Is it just me or does anyone else think that the writers have made Bill an even bigger idiot when he’s in lust? How the hell can I buy him as a successful mogul when his former thrill thing, Steffy, was able to cheat him into selling FC back to her family and then Brooke was able to swap papers giving him control of everything he ever wanted? Bill clearly thinks with his zipper.